Around Union County, Oregon. We Are about 250 miles east of Portland, Oregon. The 2,038 square miles of Union County, comprise an area of rugged rangelands, snow-capped peaks, fertile valleys, timbered slopes, and crystal clear streams and rivers. Thus abundance of scenic beauty and natural resources has attracted human interest for thousands of years.
From 1840 through the 1870's more than 300,000 emigrants passed westward through the Grande Ronde Valley on what became known around the world as The Oregon Trail. The Oregon Trail crossed the Powder River and entered Union County near a stage station at the present site of North Powder. Then the trail crossed the Clover Creek Valley and the foothills between Glass Hill and Craig Mountain and wound its way through Ladd Canyon and down into the the Grande Ronde Valley. To avoid the marshy floor, the trail followed the southwestern slopes of the of the valley.
The emigrants camped on the edge of the beautiful valley, many at the site that is now Birnie Park on C Avenue in La Grande. There, they refreshed themselves and their animals and prepared for the wagon-breaking trek across the Blue Mountains to the west. They climbed the hill near what later became Old Town La Grande before crossing the steep, pine covered ridges of the Blue Mountains.
John C. Fremont wrote of our oval valley in his journal in October of 1843. " This is a place- one of the few we have seen in our journey so far-where a farmer would delight himself to establish." Yet, in spite of Fremont's assessment and the beauties of the region, few of those early pioneers stayed on, and none established themselves permanently in the region.
In 1861, settlers arrived in the valley to stay, many of them returning eastward from their homesteads in the Willamette Valley. The once fluid boundaries of the Oregon Territory had been solidified by statehood in 1859, bringing stability and political representation to the region. The discovery of gold in the mountains to the south of La Grande provided a nearby market for products that would be grown or harvested in the Grande Ronde Valley. Once begun, settlement of Union County quickly burgeoned as one community after another was established.
Benjamin Brown is credited with being the first permanent settler in the Grande Ronde Valley. He settled in what is now known as the Mount Glenn district of La Grande. At about the same time, Henry and Emily Leasey settled in the valley along with some twenty others. Five log cabins were built that first winter; these became the heart of what was first named Brown's Fort, since a stockade was built around the small colony.
The name of the settlement was then changed to Brown's Town or Brownsville. Since Linn County on the west side of the state already had a Brownsville, a new name was needed. A frenchman, Charles Dause, used the French phrase "La Grande" to describe the view seen from the heights where the settlement was located. The name was chosen at a town meeting and La Grande, the largest of the county's present communities was born.
A butcher shop, the first livery stable, and a general merchandise store were opened the first year, and by 1863 a saw mill was in operation. A flour mill capable of producing twenty-five barrels of flour per day was opened in 1865.
In 1862, Conrad Miller settled the area on the opposite side of the Grande Ronde Valley. A post office was established in 1864, and a flour mill and Wells Fargo stage line in 1865. Thus, was born the community of Union, the second largest city in Union County. The communitiies of Island City and Cove sprung up almost simultaneously, with Summerville following close on their geels. The cities of Elgin, Imbler and North Powder were established between 1880 and the beginning of the twentieth century, though each had existed much earlier as either a trading post, farming area, or an important stop along the Oregon Trail.
The coming of the railroad in 1884 rearranged the locations of towns, populations, industries and roads, some towns, most notably La Grande, flourished while others declined. Once vibrant communities, such as Alicel, Perry, Medical Springs, Starkey, Telocaset, and Pondosa, remain as remnants of their former selves.
Union County, named for inhabitants loyal to the North during the Civil War ( 1861-1865) separated from Baker County in 1864.